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What Will It Take To Make Automated Vehicles Legal In the US?
ashshy writes Tesla, Google, and many other companies are working on self-driving cars. When these autopilot systems become perfected and ubiquitous, the roads should be safer by orders of magnitude. So why doesn't Tesla CEO Elon Musk expect to reach that milestone until 2013 or so? Because the legal framework that supports American road rules is incredibly complex, and actually handled on a state-by-state basis. The Motley Fool explains which authorities Musk and his allies will have to convince before autopilot cars can hit the mainstream, and why the process will take another decade.
And even for the ones that work, they don't work well enough to make most people pay the extra amount. None of the current systems are really meant to be completely automatic and lacking a driver. This means that businesses that want automated vehicles still need to pay somebody to sit behind the wheel, which is their greatest expense. Individuals who would like to use the system to free up some time also can't benefit because they would still have to be sitting in the driver's seat, paying attention to the road. For me, I will buy an automated car when it means I can sit and watch a movie or read a book and let my car drive me to work. And even then, only when the difference in price over a non-automated car is only a small amount. Because I'm still stuck in a car, and there's only so much I can do there. If I really want to get the most out of my time, I'll reduce the amount of time spent in the car, regardless of whether or not it's automated.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Though, I'm not quite sure in which direction.
:|
On the one hand, the number of claims should bottom out once self-drive cars are in place and the bugs sorted out.
On the other, they'll have to re-calculate how they determine premium rates since the " human driver " factor will be (mostly) removed.
So, while they won't be paying out nearly as much in claims, they won't be taking in nearly as much in premiums either. Should be interesting.
Speed Traps will no longer be the revenue-cow that many towns rely on. Red-light cameras and similar tech will become a waste of time. How WILL Law Enforcement pay for their Soldier-Wanna-Be toys . . .
Hell, these things, once mainstream, will also shift the entire traffic structure around. Stalls, wrecks, weather, and other rubber-neck variables will pretty much go away meaning a much better driving experience. Great for the driver (passenger ?) , but probably not so great for the State / City governments who just LOVE congestion because it pushes the traffic onto their Toll Roads which they seem to be building in greater numbers these days. I would expect to see the Toll Roads become ghost roads ( in those areas where the Toll Roads are a means to bypass highway congestion and not the ONLY means into or out of an area ) as the reasons for utilizing them in the first place will become irrelevant.
Will need to put some more thought into it, but I bet the introduction of the self-drive vehicle will impact quite a bit of modern day revenue-generators which will probably cause a major panic along some lines. lol
If that is the rationale, then the car needs to be 100% automated, under all circumstances, with all liability going to whoever made the damned thing.
Many of us have been saying for quite some time ... if we're liable for the actions of a robot, or the automated car is suddenly going to transfer control back to you to solve the problem ... these things will continue to be nothing more than novelties.
If you expect me to be driving in an automated car, I shouldn't reasonably need to be even awake, because any failover to human more or less needs to assume it isn't possible to do that safely.
And why the hell would I pay insurance on my car if it's not being operated by me? You think I'd take the liability over for Google? Why would I do that?
So, if it isn't 100% automated 100% of the time ... it's a half-ass solution which is going to have corner cases in which bad things will happen, and whoever made it will act like it was your fault.
Done properly, the auto insurance industry goes out of business with autonomous cars. Done improperly, there's still the illusion that the meat-sock which should essentially be a passenger is responsible.
In which case, the meat-sock might as well drive their own car.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.